LINDA’S NOT YOUR TYPICAL STAR STUDENT

By timesecholife on in Latest News

A CHEADLE woman has become an A* student at the age of 55.

The Specialist Learning Support Assistant studied for the new English Language GCSE exam as a unique way of supporting Year 11 students at JCB Academy in Rocester.
She passed with flying colours – achieving the new grade 8 – equivalent to an A*.
Linda told the Times and Echo: “I have been a Specialist LSA at JCB Academy for seven years and, for the last three, a very stable and successful English team has created a climate for students to achieve in a subject that they do not always find easy.
“The introduction of the challenging new GCSE understandably worried staff and students alike so to let students know how confident we were in the English Language teaching but also to let them know how much faith we had in them and their preparation, I decided to take the GCSE at the same time that they did.”
Linda sat in lessons and revision sessions alongside teenage students leading up to the exams and English teachers Ellie Sillitoe and Hannah Bailey were ‘particularly impressed’ with her revision of short story writing and her competitiveness when comparing answers with fellow students.
Linda waited for her results alongside students on results day and opened her envelope to find that her hard work had paid off.
She added: “I really enjoyed the reading paper and the ‘real life’ transactional writing, though I was not that keen on the creative prose task though – 45 minutes to write your own story from scratch is quite a feat!
“Taking this GCSE gave me an insight into the challenges that are faced by our young people and on results day I was as nervous as they were.
“I am very proud to have achieved a grade 8. Who knows what is next for me, maybe GCSE English Literature and then perhaps A-Level!”